‘I hate you’: Missouri town left shaken when ‘lovely’ older couple and ‘good neighbors’ get arrested for two separate murders

The residents of Chadwick, Missouri, lived alongside Gerald and Alice Uden for years, never suspecting that the quiet older couple had dark secrets hidden in their past. This illusion of normalcy was shattered in 2013, when Alice was taken into custody for the murder of her third husband, Ronald Holtz. The true crime case involving Holtz had remained unsolved for nearly 40 years until his remains were discovered in an abandoned gold mine in August 2013.

Per People, it turns out Alice shot Holtz in the back of his head while he slept back in late 1974 or early 1975. Just one day later, Gerald was also taken into custody. He faced accusations of murdering his ex-wife, Virginia Uden, and her two young sons, aged 10 and 12, back in 1980. According to reports, Gerald shot the mother and her children while they were out bird hunting and made attempts to hide their bodies.

Before these arrests, the couple seemed like standard, friendly neighbors who raised emus and kept to themselves. A neighbor who lived nearby described Alice as “a very cordial lady” and noted, “They were such good neighbors.” This neighbor would even check in on Alice, who dealt with health issues like diabetes, whenever Gerald was away working as a long-haul trucker. 

They certainly blended in well

Erica Hayes, who was Alice’s youngest child, had long suspected her mother was hiding something. Alice had actually admitted to killing Holtz years earlier after going to confession. Erica recalled the moment to others, saying, “She sat me down and said she had killed someone… ‘I did do this.’”

Gerald also eventually opened up to Erica shortly before his arrest. When they met at a truck stop, “I asked him what was going on, and then, did he do it?” she recounted. “He sat for the longest time and finally said, ‘What difference is it going to make if you knew?’ I said, ‘It will give me peace.’ He finally admitted it.”

The courtroom proceedings was even more painful. Alice’s son, Todd Scott, testified about how his mother had told him about the shooting. “She just, out of the blue, told me how she got up one night, got a .22 [caliber gun], and shot Ron in the head,” Scott told a Wyoming jury. 

He added, “I don’t know why a mother would tell her children she killed somebody.” In a moment of raw emotion after his testimony, Scott turned to his mother, who was 75 and in a wheelchair, and said, “I hate you.”

Alice was convicted of second-degree murder in 2014 and passed away in prison in June 2019 at the age of 80. Gerald pleaded guilty to all three murders and was sentenced to life in prison in 2013. He is currently 83 and remains behind bars. 

Interestingly, the Udens aren’t the only couple who got pulled up for cold cases. An episode of Unsolved Mysteries helped the police nab a Georgia couple for a 24-year-old cold case. Similarly, a woman who googled cold cases helped the police identify her elderly father as a serial killer.